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Olmsted 64 principal gets community service in disability insurance fraud

A Buffalo school principal who admitted she continued to collect surgery-related disability benefits from her insurance company even after she returned to work was sentenced to perform 50 hours of community service and a one-year conditional discharge Wednesday in Buffalo City Court.

Assistant District Attorney Christopher Jurusik said Parette Walker already has repaid the $9,000 she illegally accepted from her private insurance company, First Unum Life Insurance Co., in 2014 and that Judge Kevin J. Keane gave her 90 days to fulfill the community service requirement.

Walker, 53, legitimately collected roughly $2,000 a month in disability payments in June, July and August 2014 while she was off work after having shoulder surgery.

However, when she returned to work in the fall she continued to collect the benefits through December of that year while also receiving a paycheck.

She has been on paid administrative leave from her post as the head of Olmsted School 64 since she pleaded guilty in January to a misdemeanor charge of insurance fraud.

Walker was charged after an investigation by the state Department of Financial Services, the District Attorney’s Office said.

Walker, who lives in Lancaster, was assistant principal at Olmsted for 13 years before being appointed principal at the beginning of the 2015-16 school year.